The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-28

cheerful and happy expression, and iokingly
salu; Are you going to get marri dp 10
my surprise she replied, Yes: you've
suessei 1t! j remarked that | hoped tor
'er AXE be was q wealthy man She
answered that he was, that he lad abun-
dance OF money. She then gave me some
OF the details, invited me to be one of
the wedding party, which invitation l had
20 decline; but upon her pressing me to make
her house my home when did go to Lon
don l gave cheerful consent. heard her
story all i'll good faith and was ms much de
celved as any of her other friends | had
not the slightest misgiVing as to its truthful
ness, and the only reflection | made about
1t was in an observation | made to nv
mother at dinner, that it was "a very strange
coincidence that Florence's marriage should
come about very much in the same way as
Sne mad described the engagement and wed
dlng or one of her characters in her unfin-
lShed novel, the manuscript of which had
read
II did not see anything more of Florence
until Saturday night week l came into
TINS room about IL o'clock of that night,
having been out nearly all day, and found
upon my desk piece of paper on which was
written message that Florence desired to
see me. went to the house of the friend
| where she was staying. found her in bed
In very nervous state, sleepless | admin
istered soporiac She obtained some
sleep, but | remained there all night.
But to make this intricate story more
ineligible | must go back q little of the in
cldent have just related.
GETTING DOWN TO HARD PAN.
"On the morning of the Saturday that l
visited Florence at midnight the crisis in
her deluSion had arrived Her friends
whom She had invited to her English wed
IL
had made elaborate and expensive addi-
tons to their toilet and were on the tiptoe Of
expectation of jaunt to Europe, for
which nearly all the expenses would be
paid by somebody else. Part of the an
nounced programme was that money orders
to pay their travelling expenses to New
York should be sent them about a week
before the sailing Of the steamship Etruria
to Liverpool last Saturday, the vessel the
wedding party was to embark upon.
Florence had not the money to pay for
these money orders. She had a painful
| realization that she could not idealize dol
lars and cents. Unless she sent this money
there would be an exposure of her delusion
This was an objective fact that thrust itself
upon her reason for solution. There were
two ways she could solve it-she could COM
nit suicide or Mr.. Crowninshield must die
She decided upon the latter alternative
vited friends kilograms, stating that Mr.
CrOwntnshield had died on the voyage
Having done that she returned to the house,
where she is now staying. To those friends
she told the story Of the receipt of cable
grams announcing Mr. CrOwninshields
death, of the interview at the Aston House,
and the hurried departure of Mr.. CrOwnin-
shields agent, who had left her in the care
of a gentleman friend, who had had her
driven home in a carriage.
THE REAL BUT UNPLEASANT TRUTH.
''FlOrence's telegram to Mrs. Coffin had
brought that lady from Boston, and when
arrived at the house on Saturday night Mrs.
Coffin was there. We had, of course, all
accepted the story of Florence as true, and
had acted in regard to her friends in ac-
cOrdance Herewith. On Monday morning
| suggested that the Cunard Company
ought to be told of what had occurred, so
that they could make another dispensation
of the ten staterooms that had been engaged.
/ senta messenger to their Office, and he re-
turned with the amazing intelligence, to us,
that they knew nothing of any Miss Flor
ence Stone or Mr.. Crowninshield or the ell
gagement of ten staterooms for any party.
Il went to Florence, told her what the
message was, and said, How is this!
She then confessed all, and our own in
voluntary deception was revealed to our as
tonished mental vision.
THAT, | think, is substantially the story.
Florence is still living in two worlds She
has yet the illusion of living in social splen-
dor and of having all the pleasures oflife at
her beck and call But she is utterly ire
sponSible and greatly to be pitied."